one of them was in 2006 when we had a big wave election. democrats -- sorry, republicans were thrown out of office. which republicans? largely the moderate ones from the northeast. republicans that were in pretty presidentially democratic states. they were thrown out of office, and then we had another wave election in 2010 when people were upset with president obama about health care a number of other things and who got thrown out of office. democrats. which democrats? mostly the southern blue dog democrats, the moderate ones, so the very folks, the moderate republicans from the northeast and the conservative democrats from the south that are most inclined to come up with some sort of deal have been pretty much wiped out of office so you have a very, very divided congress where there's no real incentive election-wise to find the middle. >> it doesn't pay to be in the middle. doesn't pay to be in the middle if you're in washington. peter morici is a professor of international business and dan gross is a global business editor at "newsweek" a